Israel’s unabated hostilities on Gaza continue nearly 24 hours after ICJ ruling
RAFAH, GAZA - JANUARY 25: Citizens inspect the effects of the destruction of the Omar bin Abdul Aziz Mosque, and the houses adjacent to it, due to Israeli air strikes on January 25, 2024 in Rafah, Egypt. The toll since the Oct. 7 war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas now exceeds 25,000 dead and 62,000 injured, according to the territory's health ministry. Two-thirds of the victims are believed to be women and children. The United Nations estimates for its part that more than 18,000 Palestinian children have lost a parent. With 25 per cent of the population, or more than half a million people, are in a situation of "food catastrophe" and threatened with famine. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)
Intense fighting raged Saturday in the Gaza city of Khan Yunis, the main theatre of conflict where the Israeli army is targeting the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas.
The unabated hostilities came a day after the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled Israel must prevent possible acts of genocide in the conflict but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
Tensions rose between Israel and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees after Israel alleged several UNRWA staff were involved in the Hamas attack of October 7, leading some key donor countries to suspend funding.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Saturday that Israel wants to ensure the UN agency, with tens of thousands of staff in the territory, “will not be a part of the day after” the bloodiest ever Gaza war.
Alarm has grown over the plight of civilians in Khan Yunis, the southern hometown of Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, the suspected mastermind of the October 7 attack.
AFPTV images showed thousands of civilians, among them women and children, fleeing the city on foot as an Israeli tank loomed behind them.
“They besieged us, so we fled,” said Tahani al-Najjar, who left Khan Yunis with her daughter. “We call on the UN to intervene, to stop the war. Enough of fear and terror!”
Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the displaced endured incessant cold rain and warned of the “spread of contagious diseases”.
The Israeli army said its “troops continued to kill numerous armed terrorists from close range” and raided a weapons storage facility in Khan Yunis.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 135 people were killed in Khan Yunis overnight.
The Hamas government said “massive tank bombardment” targeted a refugee camp in the city and its Nasser hospital.
AFP
